The event featured giant air cannons, catapults, trebuchets, slingshots and other devices launching gourds long distances.
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Wild mashups of Ewan MacGregor firing garlic bread from trebuchets shot to the top of enemy subreddits.
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All the other trebuchets and the trench we see on the episode appear to be built with wood.
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It had trebuchets that could smash down walls, which could be destroyed brick-by-brick—that was pretty cool.
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Volunteers hoisted up tape barricades to block people from getting too close to the cannons, catapults, trebuchets and centrifugal chuckers.
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Céline Dion weighs in on whether Jack could have fit on that 'Titanic' door 'Succession' star Brian Cox pitches Cookie Monster on sweet deal Watch a Tesla's Autopilot swerve to avoid ducks crossing the road Send in the trebuchets!
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Moreover, see-through or not, a wall of any height is well within the range of drug smugglers' amazing variety of drug-launching devices, some of which are trebuchets capable of launching bales of narcotics 100-150 feet in the air.
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Somebody finds an old trebuchet kicking around but Wallace stops everyone before they get out of hand with a speech in which he growls that in his day, even if you wanted to, you couldn't just go launching officials from trebuchets, you had to confront your problems on the court.
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Some modern historians use mangonel to mean exclusively traction trebuchets, some call traction trebuchets traction mangonels, and counterweight trebuchets counterweight mangonels. The mangonel is called al-manjaniq in Arabic. In China the traction trebuchet was called the pao (砲) while the counterweight trebuchet was called the huihuipao (Muslim trebuchet).
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The siege of Burgos was one of the last military engagements that saw the use of trebuchets, as gunpowder weaponry such as cannons became increasingly common, and the siege is one of the last known references to their use. During the siege, bombards were used alongside trebuchets.
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The barrage inflicted casualties in the city and had a psychological impact on the soldiers operating the Jurchen trebuchets.
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The earliest depiction of a hybrid trebuchet is dated to 1462, when trebuchets had already become obsolete due to cannons.
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Unlike the older towers, these were square rather than round in design. The towers contained platforms on which trebuchets could be placed. Due to their high position, these trebuchets could outrange enemy artillery and thereby prevent them from breaching the walls. After Al-Adil's death in 1218, intense power struggles broke out among his sons and other Ayyubid princes.
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They had learned the art of making siege weapons while conquering northern China, recovering some mangonels, trebuchets and rams from Chinese engineers.
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Similar triangular-framed trebutchets are found in Byzantine sources as labdarea (lambda-shaped machines) and as "Turkish trebuchets" (manjanīq turkī) by Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi and the Templar of Tyre. Mao Yuanyi (茅元儀; 1594–1640), the compiler of the Ming dynasty military treatise Wubei Zhi, considered the "Crouching Tiger Trebuchet" as an ancestor to the cannon along with other bomb-throwing trebuchets.
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Counterweight trebuchets use gravity; potential energy is stored by slowly raising an extremely heavy box (typically filled with stones, sand, or lead) attached to the shorter end of the beam (typically on a hinged connection), and releasing it on command. Traction trebuchets use human power; on command, men pull ropes attached to the shorter end of the trebuchet beam. The difficulties of coordinating the pull of many men together repeatedly and predictably makes counterweight trebuchets preferable for the larger machines, though they are more complicated to engineer. Further increasing their complexity is that either winches or treadwheels, aided by block and tackle, are typically required to raise the more massive counterweights.
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So while counterweight trebuchets require significantly fewer men to operate than traction trebuchets, they require significantly more time to reload. In a long siege, reload time may not be a critical concern. When the trebuchet is operated, the force causes rotational acceleration of the beam around the axle (the fulcrum of the lever). These factors multiply the acceleration transmitted to the throwing portion of the beam and its attached sling.
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The distance between the royal trebuchets and the walls severely reduced their effectiveness, and heavier trebuchets had to be sent for from London. Papal intervention through the legate Ottobuono finally resulted in the compromise of the Dictum of Kenilworth, under which the rebels were allowed to re-purchase their confiscated lands provided they surrendered the castle;Carpenter 2004, p.381; Prestwich, p.57. the siege ended on 14 December 1266.
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These counterweight trebuchets had a shooting range of , and could launch projectiles weighing over . On top of their power, these new trebuchets were much more accurate than the old ones, and were the only artillery capable of reaching the walls of Xiangyang. Yuan forces built about 20 of them, and used them to assist the siege of Xiangyang. The Mongols started the siege with Fancheng in early 1273.
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After this defeat, Aju asked Kublai for the powerful siege machines of the Ilkhanate. Ismail and Al- aud-Din, from Mosul, Iraq, arrived in South China to construct a new type of counterweight-driven trebuchet that could use explosive shells. The Mosuli engineers built the new siege trebuchets, and smaller mangonels, and traction trebuchets as well. The design of the critical new counterweight trebuchets were taken from those used by Hulagu to batter down the walls of Baghdad in 1258. The counterweight trebuchets Hulegu used (referred to as "Frankish mangonels" in an official Ilkhanate history) were almost certainly borrowed from his Crusader state vassals, having been sent to the Levant by German and French crusaders by 1242 at the latest. According to the Ilkhanate historian Rashid Al-Din, the introduction of these weapons in 1268 was decisive and allowed the Mongols to rapidly conquer fortified cities they had previously deemed untakeable.Rashid al-Din, "The Successors of Genghis Khan," p. 290-291 (John Andrew Boyle's translation).
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The Muslim and additional Chinese engineers operated the artillery and siege engines for the Mongol armies. Hence, the Chinese, who were the first to invent the traction trebuchet, now faced Persian-designed counterweight trebuchets on the side of the Mongol army, so by 1273 the Chinese were led to build their own counterweight trebuchets; as an Chinese account states, "In 1273 the frontier cities had all fallen. But Muslim trebuchets were constructed with new and ingenious improvements, and different kinds became available, far better than those used before." During the siege, both the Mongol and Song forces used thunder crash bombs, a type of incendiary gunpowder weapon of cast iron, filled with gunpowder.
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These trebuchets had a shooting range of around 100 meters, and could use projectiles of around 50 kg. During Mongol campaigns against the Jin dynasty, the Mongols used about 5,000 trebuchets, and they were very successful in destroying the Jin fortresses. Lv Wende commanded the Song dynasty's Yangtze and his son-in-law Fan Wenhu and son Lv Wenhuan commanded Xiangyang. However the twin cities had expected an assault by bombardment and prepared for it.
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Nicolle p. 4. Some Trebuchets were used to throw dead horses into a besieged city to spread disease. The Muslims had adopted the technology and traditions of those whom they conquered.
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A counterweight trebuchet. The Komnenian army had a formidable artillery arm which was particularly feared by its eastern enemies. Stone-firing and bolt-firing machines were used both for attacking enemy fortresses and fortified cities and for the defence of their Byzantine equivalents. In contemporary accounts the most conspicuous engines of war were stone-throwing trebuchets, often termed helepolis (city-takers); both the man-powered and the more powerful and accurate counterweight trebuchets were known to the Byzantines.
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The attempt was reportedly unsuccessful: the first projectile landed on the trebuchet itself, destroying it. In China, the last time trebuchets were seriously considered for military purposes was in 1480. Not much is heard of them afterwards.
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Though they do not have a demon or angel to aid them, Renaissance players can construct a series of siege engines such as trebuchets, mangonels and even primitive rocket launchers that more than compensate for this loss.
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In 1235, Mongols raided Song territory. In 1236, Mongols routed Song forces in Sichuan. In 1237, Mongols employed large bombs requiring several hundred men to hurl using trebuchets in the siege of Anfeng (modern Shouxian, Anhui Province).
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It is built on the design of a similar trebuchet at Middelaldercentret in Denmark.June 14, 2005 Reconstructing Medieval Artillery. archive.archaeology.org. Retrieved 12 September 2013 In 1989, Middelaldercentret became the first place in the modern era to have a working trebuchet. Trebuchets compete in one of the classifications of machines used to hurl pumpkins at the annual pumpkin chucking contest held in Sussex County, Delaware, U.S. The record-holder in that contest for trebuchets is the Yankee Siege II from New Hampshire, which at the 2013 WCPC Championship tossed a pumpkin 2835.8 ft (864.35 metres).
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The Mongols also scouted the hills around the city to find suitable higher ground on which to mount ballistas manned by northern Chinese engineers, allowing these to snipe into the interior of the fortress. The Mongols made effective use of the siege technologies developed by their subject peoples; Genghis Khan utilized the Chinese engineers and traction trebuchets he had gained from his victories over the Jurchens and Tanguts during his Khwarezmian campaign, while Kublai Khan later called upon Muslim engineers from his Ilkhanate cousins to build counterweight trebuchets that finally concluded the six year siege of Fancheng and Xiangyang.
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Today the picturesquely restored castle, a private property open to the public, houses a much-visited museum of medieval warfare, featuring reconstructions of siege engines, mangonneaux, and trebuchets. The castle is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
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All the other towers are rectangular with their broad sides parallel to the walls of the citadel. All towers are crowned by a double parapet equipped with machicolations and numerous arrowslits. These parapets surrounded and thereby protected the large platforms from which trebuchets were operated.
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The Siege of Safed (November–December 1188) was part of Saladin's invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The siege of the Templar-held castle began in early November 1188. Saladin was joined by his brother, Saphadin. Saladin employed a large number of trebuchets and extensive mines.
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Since the Yuan employed Muslim engineers for the designing of the counterweight trebuchets, they were designated in Chinese historiography as the "Muslim" trebuchet (hui-hui pao). The Chinese scholar Zheng Sixiao (1206–83) indicates that, "in the case of the largest ones, the wooden framework stood above a hole in the ground".Quoted in Needham and Yates, Science and Civilisation in China, 5:6:221 After Aju asked Kublai, the Emperor of the Mongol Empire, the powerful siege machines of the Ilkhanate, Ismail and Al-aud-Din from Iraq arrived in South China to construct a new type of trebuchet which used explosive shells. These Muslim engineers built mangonels and trebuchets for the siege.
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Early cannons had only a limited range and were unreliable; in addition early stone cannonballs were relatively ineffective when fired at stone castle walls.King (1991), p. 169. As a result, early cannon proved most useful for defence, particularly against infantry assaults or to fire at the crews of enemy trebuchets.
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Bradbury, 256-257; Hacker, 43. This is only for two-armed arrow-firing machines, though. Onagers and two-armed stone throwers are still up for modern debate. Konstantin Nossov argues that “beam-sling” stone- throwers that were the precursors of proper trebuchets largely replaced torsion stone-throwers by the 9th century.
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Gunpowder was also used in fire balls launched by trebuchets. "Barbed fire balls" used a series of hooks to latch onto its target. A "molten metal bomb" also saw use during the Jin siege of Kaifeng in 1126. These were ceramic containers filled with molten metal kept in a mobile furnace.
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Purton, pp. 383 and 386. Trebuchets were first recorded in England in 1217, and were probably used the year before as well. Richard I used them in his sieges during the Third Crusade and appears to have started to alter his castle designs to accommodate the new technology on his return to Europe.
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Chuangzi Nu Both the Song and Mongol forces had thunder crash bombs during the siege, a type of gunpowder weapon. The Mongols also utilized siege crossbows and traction trebuchets. The Song forces used fire arrows and fire lances in addition to their own thundercrash bombs. The Song forces also used paddle ships.
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Anbar was defended by the Uqaylid client Abu'l-Ghana'im ibn al-Muhallaban. Al-Basasiri, employing trebuchets and Greek fire, destroyed a tower and some defensive works. The town was stormed and Abu'l-Ghana'im was captured along a hundred Khafaja soldiers. The conflict with the vizier continued after al-Basasiri's return to Baghdad.
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Bradbury, 255. It describes a single-armed torsion machine on a triangular frame that could hurl 50 lbs. stones. Additionally, Persian double-armed devices similar to ancient Greek design are also described. The major problem with this source, however, is that most of the illustrations show trebuchets, not onagers or other torsion machines.
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Pumpkin chunking is a competitive activity in which teams build various mechanical devices designed to throw a pumpkin as far as possible. Catapults, trebuchets, ballistas and air cannons are the most common mechanisms. Some pumpkin chunkers breed and grow special varieties of pumpkin under specialized conditions to improve the pumpkin's chances of surviving a throw.
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The royal forces tried all manners of devices. Numerous stone-throwing devices, presumably trebuchets, were brought to the siege, as well as "turres ligneas", or wooden towers. An "ursus" or "bear" was built, with separate compartments for archers.The Chronicle of William de Rishanger of the Barons’ Wars, ed. J.O. Halliwell (Camden Society, 1840), p 51.
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Bradbury, 256. Also by the 12th century, siege engines were used in batteries, often consisting of large numbers of torsion devices, as in Philip Augustus’ siege of Chinon in 1205 during which he collected 400 cords for petrariae.Joinville, Life of St. Louis; Bradbury 257 . These batteries were gradually replaced with trebuchets and early gunpowder machines.
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Tong Yabghu responded by sending a large force to ravage the Persian empire, marking the start of the Third Perso-Turkic War. A joint Byzantine-Tűrk operation breached the Caspian gates and sacked Derbent in 627. Together they then besieged Tiflis, where the Byzantines may have deployed an early variety of traction trebuchets (ἑλέπόλεις) to breach the walls.
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Chen Kangbo (陈康伯), prime minister of the Song dynasty, was chief military strategist and commanded the navy. Yu Yunwen, a civil official, commanded the defending Song army. The paddle-wheel warships of the Song fleet, equipped with trebuchets that launched incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, decisively defeated the light ships of the Jin navy.
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For two days they built bridges and reached the castle on March 13. The Order dug trenches, built ramparts, and filled the moat with dirt. To protect themselves from Lithuanian attack, the Teutons dug a canal connecting Neman and Neris, thus cutting off the castle from the mainland. They also built siege towers and trebuchets and managed to destroy two corner towers.
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Blocking the Mongols' passage south of the Yangtze were the twin fortress cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng. What resulted was one of the longest sieges the world had ever known, lasting from 1268 to 1273. In 1273 the Mongols enlisted the expertise of two Muslim engineers, one from Persia and one from Syria, who helped in the construction of counterweight trebuchets.
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Château de Castelnaud 13th century depiction of Mongols using a counterweight trebuchet A trebuchet () is a type of catapult that uses a long arm to throw a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. There are two main types of trebuchets. The first is the traction trebuchet, or mangonel, which uses manpower to swing the arm.
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From this position, the enemy castle could be engaged relatively safely with a trebuchet or catapult and its occupants psychologically ground down. Such a position may be seen today about 430 metres northeast and above Thurant Castle on the Moselle. Trebuchets were used in sieges from the early 13th century. Large catapults had a range of about 400 to 500 metres.
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Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 476. The Jurchen launched an invasion against the Southern Song along the length of the Yangtze River, which resulted in two crucial Song victories at the Battle of Caishi and Battle of Tangdao in 1161. The Jin navy was defeated by the Song's standing navy, which employed trebuchets on their ships' top deckhouses to launch gunpowder bombs.
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In 1229, the castle came under siege by the Ibelins, who bombarded it with trebuchets, reportedly destroying several buildings. The castle's garrison surrendered a year later when its commander Gauvain de Cheneche was killed by a crossbow bolt. Afterwards, the Lusignans continued their reign interrupted only by occasional palace coups. In 1373, Cyprus was invaded by the Republic of Genoa imprisoning the local nobility.
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According to Paul E. Chevedden, a hybrid trebuchet existed that used both counterweight and human propulsion. However no illustrations or descriptions of the device exist from the time when they were supposed to have been used. The entire argument for the existence of hybrid trebuchets rests on accounts of increasingly more effective siege weapons. Peter Purton suggests that this was simply because the machines became larger.
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Missiles fired from these engines had a lower trajectory than trebuchets or mangonels and were more accurate. They were more commonly used against the garrison rather than the buildings of a castle. Eventually cannons developed to the point where they were more powerful and had a greater range than the trebuchet, and became the main weapon in siege warfare. Walls could be undermined by a sap.
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However, the Mongols surrounded the fortified Hungarian camp, and bombarded it with trebuchets, gunpowder weapons, and flaming arrows.Yuanshi 121, 122 in: Pow and Liao, 63-68, 72. Hungarian cavalry charges were lured further away from their camp and encircled. The result was complete panic; and to ensure that the Hungarians did not fight to the last man, the Mongols left an obvious gap in their encirclement.
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Traction trebuchet on an Early Song Dynasty warship from the Wujing Zongyao. Trebuchets like this were used to launch the earliest type of explosive bombs. The Song military was chiefly organized to ensure that the army could not threaten Imperial control, often at the expense of effectiveness in war. Northern Song's Military Council operated under a Chancellor, who had no control over the imperial army.
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At least twelve large siege engines, probably trebuchets, carried out a round-the-clock area bombardment. The results were considered unsatisfactory. In July an attack was attempted from the north, across the Lot, using three siege towers mounted on large barges. As they were being manoeuvred across the river one was hit by a missile from an English trebuchet, capsizing it with heavy loss.
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Trebuchets at Middelaldercentret. Among the largest tourist attraction in the municipality is Middelaldercentret just outside Nykøbing Falster, which is an open-air museum built as a medieval town with houses and weaponry from around 1400. In Nysted is Aalholm, which is a privately owned castle. Fuglsang Art Museum holds a notable collection of Danish art from the end of the 18th century until today.
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Nūr al-Dīn, who had inherited Aleppo on Zangī's death, ceased his war with Raymond of Antioch ordered a levée en masse throughout his domains as soon as he learned of the fall of Edessa. He also appealed to the neighbouring Seljuk governors for aid. He marched from Aleppo to Edessa with an army of 10,000. He arrived on 2 November and set about besieging the city with trebuchets.
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In reality, there continue to be two perceptible and distinct spaces constituting the principal elements of the medieval form of Carrazeda de Ansiães. The first, situated on the higher elevations, corresponds to the primitive trebuchets. This perimeter is defined and organized around the ovular walls, reinforced by five rectangular towers. It is still possible to recognize the group of structural vestiges, such as the keep and the respective annexes.
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During sieges both defenders and attackers commonly used a variety of heavy hurling machines like catapults, onagers, trebuchets etc., and from the end of the 14th century bombards, arquebuses, and finally cannons. With increasing tension and fighting along the eastern border, Poles adopted many eastern- style war customs and weapons. This is why the sword was so easily and so commonly replaced in the 16th century with the szabla.
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Bellifortis was written in Latin and contained many elaborate illustrations of war weaponry. The manual discusses machines and technology that were old and new. It described weapons such as trebuchets, battering rams, movable portable bridges, cannons, rockets, chariots, ships, mills, scaling ladders, incendiary devices, crossbows, and instruments of torture. The portrait of the author is called by its modern editor the first realistic portrait of an author since Antiquity.
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Sheffield hosts the annual two-day Tasmanian Medieval Festival every October. The festival includes sword fighting, fencing, archery, jousting and demonstrations of working cannons and trebuchets. The festival has grown in popularity since its inception, with 4000 people attending the event in 2018.Dadson, Manika (15 October 2018) Medieval sword fighting a good way to let off steam, says Tasmanian mother of seven, ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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The first clearly written record of a counterweight trebuchet comes from Tarsusi, who wrote a military manual for Saladin circa 1187. He describes a hybrid trebuchet that he said had the same hurling power as a traction machine pulled by fifty men due to "the constant force [of gravity], whereas men differ in their pulling force." (Showing his mechanical proficiency, Tarsusi designed his trebuchet so that as it was fired it cocked a supplementary crossbow, probably to protect the engineers from attack.)Scott Farrell, Weaponry: The Trebuchet In his book, Medieval Siege, Jim BradburyJim Bradbury, Medieval Siege extensively quotes from Tarsusi concerning mangonels of various types, including Arab, Persian and Turkish, describing what could be trebuchets, but not quoted as above. In On the Social Origins of Medieval Institutions,Philip Daileader, On the Social Origins of Medieval Institutions more detailed quotes by Tarsusi may be found on the various types of trebuchets.
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With the introduction of gunpowder, the trebuchet began to lose its place as the siege engine of choice to the cannon. Trebuchets were still used both at the siege of Burgos (1475–1476) and siege of Rhodes (1480). One of the last recorded military uses was by Hernán Cortés, at the 1521 siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. Accounts of the attack note that its use was motivated by the limited supply of gunpowder.
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Lu Wenhuan sent a messenger to Emperor Duzong of Song, to request immediate reinforcements. The messenger successfully got by the Yuan forts and reached the emperor. But upon hearing the effectiveness of these new trebuchets, the emperor considered Xiangyang lost and did not send reinforcements. For the next few days, Song soldiers looked to the south for reinforcements, but all they saw were Yuan siege weapons and the Mongols waiting to end their lives.
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Siege crossbows and firebombs were also deployed on Song ships against Mongol forces, in addition to fire lances. The name of the bombs in Chinese was Zhen tian lei. They were made from cast iron and filled with gunpowder, the Chinese Song forces delivered them to the enemy via trebuchets. Armor made out of iron could be penetrated by pieces of the bomb after the explosion, which had a 50 kilometer noise range.
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In 1400, the Mongol army under Timur, better known as Tamerlane, swept down on Syria and arrived at Damascus after having subdued Aleppo, Homs, and Baalbek. A Mamluk army from Egypt under Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq, the son of Barquq, failed to lift the siege. In 1401, the city surrendered to Timur, except for the citadel, which Timur besieged. Towers with trebuchets were set up around the citadel and in the Umayyad Mosque.
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The Avars had mounted archers with composite bows that could double as heavy cavalry with lances. They were skilled in siegecraft and could construct trebuchets and siege towers. In their siege of Constantinople, they constructed walls of circumvallation to prevent easy counterattack and used mantelets or wooden frames covered with animal hides to protect against defending archers. Furthermore, like many nomads, they gathered other warriors such as Gepids and Slavs to assist them.
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These are said to have been the first pieces of artillery with gunpowder to be used in the peninsula. Trenches continued to be built around the city until they surrounded the entire perimeter by March 1343. Behind the trenches were earthen banks, and on these wooden walls were erected to protect the besieging soldiers, with strong towers erected at intervals. Trebuchets in the Castilian camp hurled large numbers of stone balls, or bolaños.
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Some motors are powered by potential or kinetic energy, for example some funiculars, gravity plane and ropeway conveyors have used the energy from moving water or rocks, and some clocks have a weight that falls under gravity. Other forms of potential energy include compressed gases (such as pneumatic motors), springs (clockwork motors) and elastic bands. Historic military siege engines included large catapults, trebuchets, and (to some extent) battering rams were powered by potential energy.
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Once the flag became visible, the Song fleet commenced their attack from both sides of the island. Song soldiers operated traction trebuchets that launched incendiary "thunderclap bombs" and other soft-cased explosives containing lime and sulphur, which created a noxious explosion when the casing broke. The Jin soldiers who managed to cross the river and reach the shore were assaulted by Song troops waiting on the other side. The Song won a decisive victory.
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In 1210 a group of Cathars sought refuge in the village after the massacre at Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade. The village was besieged by Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester. The attacking army besieged the village for six weeks before it surrendered. Four catapults or trebuchets were set up around the ramparts, three to attack the village itself and the largest, known as Malvoisine or "bad neighbour", to destroy the town's well.
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Catapults and trebuchets were used to great effect. The English used some form of firearms during the siege and modern historian Ranald Nicholson states that Berwick was probably "the first town in the British Isles to be bombarded by cannon". In late June, the defenders set adrift burning brushwood soaked in tar, in an attempt to repel a naval assault. Instead of the English ships, much of the town was set on fire.
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Historian Herbert Franke observed in his assessment of the battle that the siege is significant for historians of military technology. Many of the details of the siege are known to historians, based on a comprehensive account of the battle compiled by a Jin official living in the besieged city. The Jurchens fired explosives, propelled by trebuchets, at the opposing army. A contemporaneous record of the battle recounts the process by which the bombs were launched.
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The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time. While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Persia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving in Genghis's army. "Whole regiments" entirely made out of Chinese were used by the Mongols to command bomb hurling trebuchets during the invasion of Iran. Historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion had brought Chinese gunpowder weapons to Central Asia.
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A sling is attached to one end of the beam to hold the projectile. The projectile is thrown when the beam is quickly rotated by applying force to the opposite end of the beam. The mechanical advantage is primarily obtained by having the projectile section of the beam much longer than the opposite section where the force is applied – usually four to six times longer. The difference between counterweight and traction trebuchets is what force they use.
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Joint Byzantine and Göktürk operations were then focused on besieging Tiflis, where the Byzantines used traction trebuchets to breach the walls, one of the first known uses by the Byzantines. Khosrow sent 1,000 cavalry under Shahraplakan to reinforce the city, but it nevertheless fell, probably in late 628. Ziebel died by the end of that year, however, saving Epiphania from marriage to a barbarian. Whilst the siege proceeded, Heraclius worked to secure his base in the upper Tigris.
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These weapons were vulnerable to fire from the castle as they had a short range and were large machines. Conversely, weapons such as trebuchets could be fired from within the castle due to the high trajectory of its projectile, and would be protected from direct fire by the curtain walls. Ballistas or springalds were siege engines that worked on the same principles as crossbows. With their origins in Ancient Greece, tension was used to project a bolt or javelin.
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Then all of a sudden a > thunderclap bomb was let off. It was made with paper (carton) and filled > with lime and sulphur. (Launched from trebuchets) these thunderclap bombs > came dropping down from the air, and upon meeting the water exploded with a > noise like thunder, the sulphur bursting into flames. The carton case > rebounded and broke, scattering the lime to form a smoky fog, which blinded > the eyes of men and horses so that they could see nothing.
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The Jin fleet were unable to defeat the larger and faster warships of the Song. The battle is significant in the technological history of the Song navy. The technological advances of the Song navy ensured its access to the East China Sea, where they competed with the military forces of Jin and Mongol rivals. Although huopao launched by the ship-mounted trebuchets had been invented decades earlier, the bombs did not become mandatory on Song warships until 1129.
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The Pumpkin Chuck is held the first Saturday in November at Stanbery Park Three large festivals are held throughout the year in Mt. Washington. Guardian Angels Church conducts a large church festival in the summer, complete with games, food, live music and gambling. The Pumpkin Chuck, produced by the Mt. Washington Community Council, is held the first Saturday after Halloween. The highlight of this festival is the three hand-built trebuchets, while launch pumpkins into the Stanbery Park ravine.
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These new siege weapons had the capability of throwing larger missiles further than the previous traction trebuchets. One account records, "when the machinery went off the noise shook heaven and earth; every thing that [the missile] hit was broken and destroyed." The fortress city of Xiangyang fell in 1273. The next major battle to feature gunpowder weapons was during a campaign led by the Mongol general Bayan, who commanded an army of around two hundred thousand, consisting of mostly Chinese soldiers.
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These new siege weapons had the capability of throwing larger missiles further than the previous traction trebuchets. One account records, "when the machinery went off the noise shook heaven and earth; every thing that [the missile] hit was broken and destroyed." The fortress city of Xiangyang fell in 1273. The next major battle to feature gunpowder weapons was during a campaign led by the Mongol general Bayan, who commanded an army of around two hundred thousand, consisting of mostly Chinese soldiers.
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He attempted to fire bags of flour into the town using the trebuchets on his ships, but most of them did not reach the castle. Meanwhile, Muhammad unsuccessfully attacked Castro del Río, but subsequently captured the fortress of Cabra. Gibraltar's defenders surrendered on 17 June 1333, after about five months of siege, and were given safe conduct out of the town. Alfonso XI heard the news three days later, when his relieving army was just a few days' march away at Jerez.
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Despite his reduced numbers, between mid-November and late February Edward made several attempts to breach the walls with trebuchets or cannon, or to take the town by assault, either from the land or seaward sides; all were unsuccessful. During the winter the French made great efforts to strengthen their naval resources. This included French and mercenary Italian galleys and French merchant ships, many adapted for military use. During March and April, more than of supplies were run into Calais without opposition.
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The English arrived outside the town on 4 September and besieged it. Calais was strongly fortified: it boasted a double moat, substantial city walls, and its citadel in the north-west corner had its own moat and additional fortifications. It was surrounded by extensive marshes, some of them tidal, making it difficult to find stable platforms for trebuchets and other artillery, or to mine the walls. It was adequately garrisoned and provisioned, and was under the command of the experienced Jean de Vienne.
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The English arrived outside the town on 4September and besieged it. Calais was strongly fortified; being surrounded by extensive marshes, some of them tidal, which made it difficult to find stable platforms for trebuchets and other artillery capable of breaching its walls. Calais was adequately garrisoned and provisioned, and could be reinforced and supplied by sea. The day after the siege commenced, the English ships expected at Crotoy arrived off-shore and resupplied, re-equipped and reinforced the English army.
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There has been some scholarly debate over the use of torsion siege engines.Chevedden, 131-150; Bradbury, 250-270. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Guillaume Defour and Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte definitively claimed that torsion siege engines were replaced by trebuchets, tension machines, and counterweight machines early in the Middle Ages because the requisite supplies needed to build the sinew skein and metal support pieces were too difficult to obtain in comparison to the materials needed for tension and counterweight machines.Dufour, 97,99; Bonaparte, 26.
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A new fog-of-war mechanic was introduced for night-time game play, during which all areas outside of the immediate vicinity of the player's castle are hidden in darkness. However, players are able to use torch-holding peasants and other fire-based devices to explore the map at night. They can also illuminate specific areas by setting fire to watch towers. The option for players to launch diseased cows from trebuchets has returned, in addition to smaller animals like pigs and sheep.
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The Song resistance was minimal because they had fortified the southern shore of the Yangzi River and not the Huai. Chen Kangbo (陈康伯), prime minister (宰相) of the Song dynasty, commanded the Song navy and designed the anti-Jin offensive strategy. Yu Yunwen, a civil official, commanded the defending Song army. The paddle-wheel warships of the Song fleet, equipped with trebuchets that launched incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, decisively defeated the light ships of the Jin navy.
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These new siege weapons had the capability of throwing larger missiles further than the previous traction trebuchets. One account records, "when the machinery went off the noise shook heaven and earth; every thing that [the missile] hit was broken and destroyed." The fortress city of Xiangyang fell in 1273. The next major battle to feature gunpowder weapons was during a campaign led by the Mongol general Bayan, who commanded an army of around two hundred thousand, consisting of mostly Chinese soldiers.
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A Song dynasty louchuan with a trebuchet, depicted in the Wujing Zongyao Louchuan (traditional 樓船, simplified 楼船, lit. tower ships) were a type of Chinese naval vessels, primarily a floating fortress, which have seen use since the Han dynasty. Meant to be a central vessel in the fleet, the louchuan was equipped for boarding and attacking enemy vessels, as well as with siege weapons including traction trebuchets for ranged combat.Needham, Joseph (translated by), Taibai Yinjing, Volume 4, Part 2, pg. 685.
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Furthermore, the museum has a variety of siege weapons of the period, such as trebuchets, a ballista and a cannon and smaller weapons such as handguns, longbows and crossbows. All of the items are built on site using period tools. Activities include live firing of the weapons daily, archery, knightly tournaments, and demonstrations of crafts and tasks from the late 14th century and early 15th centuries. The employees are both permanent staff and unemployed people sent in job training from the municipality.
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A later Ming dynasty scholar known as Mao Yuanyi would explain this use of terminology and true origins of the cannon in his text of the Wubei Zhi, written in 1628: > The Song people used the turntable trebuchet, the single-pole trebuchet and > the squatting-tiger trebuchet. They were all called 'fire trebuchets' > because they were used to project fire-weapons like the (fire-)ball, > (fire-)falcon, and (fire-)lance. They were the ancestors of the > cannon.Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 22.
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In the eighth month, Yuan Shao's army slowly advanced southward from Yangwu and engaged Cao Cao's men in trench warfare, behind the earthen embankments that both sides made. Both sides harassed each other with engines of war. Yuan Shao had erected siege-ramps and high platforms which allowed his men to rain arrows onto Cao Cao's forces. In response, Cao Cao's men had to carry their shields above their heads, and retaliated with traction trebuchets that destroyed the archer platforms.
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These new siege weapons had the capability of throwing larger missiles further than the previous traction trebuchets. One account records, "when the machinery went off the noise shook heaven and earth; every thing that [the missile] hit was broken and destroyed." The fortress city of Xiangyang fell in 1273. The next major battle to feature gunpowder weapons was during a campaign led by the Mongol general Bayan, who commanded an army of around two hundred thousand, consisting of mostly Chinese soldiers.
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Latin and Muslim sources describe John's energy and personal courage in prosecuting the siege. Conspicuous in his golden helmet, John was active in encouraging his troops, supervising the siege engines and consoling the wounded. The walls of Shaizar were battered by the trebuchets of the impressive Byzantine siege train. The Emir's nephew, the poet, writer and diplomat Usama ibn Munqidh, recorded the devastation wreaked by the Byzantine artillery, which could smash a whole house with a single missile..Harris, p.
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In 1129, Song warships were outfitted with trebuchets and supplies of gunpowder bombs. In 1130, Jin forces were ambushed at the Battle of Huangtiandang and forced to stop at the Yangtze for some time before making the crossing. Zhong Xiang rebelled in Hunan and was not suppressed until 1135. In 1131, Jin forces invaded Shaanxi but were repelled, in particular by a volley fire tactic implemented by general Wu Jie (吳 玠) and his younger brother Wu Lin (吳璘).
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Once again, Zhabdrung's supporters rallied to his defense, but it became quickly apparent that the Tibetan-Lamaist coalition was far stronger. Deputing his political and military duties to his confidant Tenzin Drukgyal, Ngawang Namgyal retreated to Jarogang in Khothangkha, resolved to escape to India if his domain would be destroyed. As the situation for Zhabdrung's forces became increasingly dire, Tibetan troops attacked Simtokha Dzong. Equipped with large numbers of matchlocks as well as Chinese trebuchets, Karma Tenkyong's troops quickly stormed the palace.
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The Emirate of Granada, including Almería in the southeastern coast James II and his forces sailed from Valencia on 18 July 1309 and landed on the coast of Almería on 11 August. A Muslim account emphasized the forces' rich and colorful clothing, and the military instruments played by their musicians. His forces included siege engines such as mangonels and trebuchets. Such a display initially demoralized the defenders, but as time went by and various incidents took place, they became more optimistic.
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According to the Syriac chronicles, however, the Sasanian forces were able to delay the Roman army, allowing them to prepare for extensive defense. An account also cited a failure of intelligence from Arab clients so that the Romans were unaware of the Sasanian army's movement to the Euphrates junction with the Khabur. This army attacked the Romans from the rear. After the siege was lifted, the Sasanians used the Roman trebuchets that were left behind at the successful siege of Dara, later that year.
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The Mongols defeated a relieving force and captured Fengxiang, a secondary target, by concentrating 400 trebuchets at a corner of the wall. However, the overall campaign seemed to have reached a stalemate.Christopher P. Atwood, Pu'a's Boast and Doqolqu's Death: Historiography of a Hidden Scandal in the Mongol Conquest of the Jin, 31–41. In 1231–1232 Subutai made another attempt to outmaneuver the Jin fortified lines by using a similar highly audacious approach that they had employed in Khwarezm (1219) and Xi Xia (1226).
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After cutting off Kaifeng from any outside help, Subutai alternated intense bombardments using a mixture of Muslim trebuchets, mangonels, and captured gunpowder with periods of rest and plundering the countryside. The Mongol dispersion helped them avoid contagion by the plague that devastated Kaifeng, and after being stretched to the limit, the Emperor fled and the city surrendered. Subutai originally wanted to execute everyone in Kaifeng to punish them for their intransigence and extremely long resistance. However, Ögedei intervened and ordered Subutai to treat them fairly.
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Game Reference – Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Microsoft Corporation, pp. 54–58. Military buildings can perform research to improve the abilities of military units, increasing their strength, defensive capabilities, or other attributes.Game Reference – Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Microsoft Corporation, p.54. Castles are a key offensive and defensive building as they can build trebuchets, train the civilization's "unique unit/s", and fire a hail of arrows at enemy units within range, with garrisoned units firing extra arrows.
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The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time (although there were other siege engineers and technologies used in the campaigns, too.The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe by James Chambers, p.71) While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Central Asia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving with Genghis's army. "Whole regiments" entirely made out of Chinese were used by the Mongols to command bomb hurling trebuchets during the invasion of Iran.
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Islamic engineers joined later and especially contributed counterweight trebuchets, "Muslim phao", which had a maximum range of 300 meters compared to 150 meters of the ancient Chinese predecessor. It played a significant role in taking the Chinese strongholds and was as well used against infantry units on the battlefield. The Mongol force which invaded south China was far greater than the force they sent to invade the Middle East in 1256. The Mongols made heavy use of indigenous ethnic minority soldiers in southern China rather than Mongols.
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Lu Wenhuan sent a messenger to Emperor Duzong, to request immediate reinforcements to defend Xiangyang. The messenger successfully got by the Yuan forts and reached the emperor but upon hearing the effectiveness of these new trebuchets, the emperor considered Xiangyang lost and did not send reinforcements. The decisive Battle of Xiangyang was fought in 1274 when the Mongols succeeded in capturing and destroying the last Song stronghold. The loss of Xiangyang sealed the fate of the Song dynasty and the news of its capture was deliberately hidden from Emperor Duzong by Jia Sidao.
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Evidence of gunpowder firecrackers also points to their appearance at roughly around the same time fire medicine was making its transition in the literary imagination. Fire lances continued to be used as anti-personnel weapons into the Ming dynasty, and were even attached to battle carts on one situation in 1163. Song commander Wei Sheng constructed several hundred of these carts known as "at-your-desire-war-carts" (如意戰車), which contained fire lances protruding from protective covering on the sides. They were used to defend mobile trebuchets that hurled fire bombs.
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A functioning trebuchet at Warwick Castle (England) based on drawings from the 13th Century 2012 demonstration of the Warwick Castle trebuchet (launch at 10:30) Most trebuchet use in recent centuries has been for recreational or educational, rather than military purposes. New machines have been constructed and old ones restored by living history enthusiasts, for historical re-enactments, and use in other historical celebrations. As their construction is substantially simpler than modern weapons, trebuchets also serve as the object of engineering challenges. The trebuchet's technical constructions were lost at the beginning of the 16th century.
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Song soldiers fired bombs of lime and sulfur using trebuchets at the Jurchen warships. The battle was a Song victory that halted the invasion by the Jin. The Battle of Tangdao was another Yangtze naval battle from the same year. Politically, Nanjing was the capital of China several times, although most of the time its territory only covered the southeastern part of China, such as the Wu kingdom in the Three Kingdoms period, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods.
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Initially, gunpowder mixtures were utilised through traditional engines and throwing mechanisms; containers and grenades were thrown by mangonels and trebuchets, and explosive rockets and arrows were developed, along with gunpowder flamethrowers.Nicolle (1996), pp. 294–5 Like firearms, cannon are a descendant of the fire-lance,Needham (1986): 263–275 a gunpowder-filled tube used as a flamethrower; shrapnel-like material was sometimes placed in the barrel so that it would fly out together with the flames.Crosby 2002: 99 In due course, the proportion of saltpeter in the propellant was increased to increase its explosive power.
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Equipped with the magnetic compass and knowledge of Shen Kuo's famous treatise (on the concept of true north), the Chinese became proficient experts of navigation in their day. They raised their naval strength from a mere 11 squadrons of 3,000 marines to 20 squadrons of 52,000 marines in a century's time. Employing paddle wheel crafts and trebuchets throwing gunpowder bombs from the decks of their ships, the Southern Song dynasty became a formidable foe to the Jin dynasty during the 12th–13th centuries during the Jin–Song Wars.
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The Mongols. pp. 80–81. The Mongols were most famous for their horse archers, but troops armed with lances were equally skilled, and the Mongols recruited other military talents from the lands they conquered. With experienced Chinese engineers and a bombardier corps which was expert at building trebuchets, catapults and other machines, the Mongols could lay siege to fortified positions, sometimes building machinery on the spot using available local resources. Mongol general Subutai of the Golden Horde Forces under the command of the Mongol Empire were trained, organized, and equipped for mobility and speed.
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Siege engines are also in use in the game of Darkon for specialized battle campaigns. Siege weapons include ballistae, catapults, and trebuchets. While there are currently few specific rules governing the construction of a siege engine in Darkon, all siege engines must be built with the utmost degree of safety in mind. Ballista bolts are built much like javelins, while catapult/trebuchet stones are cloth balls filled with cotton fiber, known as "spellballs" (please see the Magic section of this article for more information about spellballs.)The Darkon Wargaming Club Official Rulebook, pp. 37-44.
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Evidence of gunpowder firecrackers also points to their appearance at roughly around the same time fire medicine was making its transition in the literary imagination. Fire lances continued to be used as anti-personnel weapons into the Ming dynasty, and were even attached to battle carts on one situation in 1163. Song commander Wei Sheng constructed several hundred of these carts known as "at-your-desire-war-carts" (如意戰車), which contained fire lances protruding from protective covering on the sides. They were used to defend mobile trebuchets that hurled fire bombs.
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Evidence of gunpowder firecrackers also points to their appearance at roughly around the same time fire medicine was making its transition in the literary imagination. Fire lances continued to be used as anti-personnel weapons into the Ming dynasty, and were even attached to battle carts on one situation in 1163. Song commander Wei Sheng constructed several hundred of these carts known as "at-your-desire-war-carts" (如意戰車), which contained fire lances protruding from protective covering on the sides. They were used to defend mobile trebuchets that hurled fire bombs.
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William Seton, a son of the town's governor, was killed fighting an English seabourne assault. By the end of June the attacks by land and sea had brought the town to a state of ruin and the garrison close to exhaustion. It is believed that a desire for a respite from the plunging fire of the two large counterweight trebuchets used by the English was a significant factor in Seton requesting a short truce from King Edward. This was granted, but only on the condition that he surrender if not relieved by 11 July.
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In addition to having fewer or no dead zones, and being easier to defend against mining, these castle designs were also much less easy to attack with trebuchets as the curved surfaces could deflect some of the force of the shot. Castles saw an increasing use of arrowslits by the 13th century, especially in England, almost certainly linked to the introduction of crossbows.Hulme, p. 217. These arrow slits were combined with firing positions from the tops of the towers, initially protected by wooden hoarding until stone machicolations were introduced in England in the late 13th century.King (1991), p. 84.
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Onager catapults initially launched projectiles from a sling, which was later changed to a "bowl-shaped bucket". The word Onager is derived from the Greek word onagros for "wild ass", referring to the "kicking motion and force" that were recreated in the Mangonel's design. Historical records regarding onagers are scarce. The most detailed account of Mangonel use is from “Eric Marsden's translation of a text written by Ammianus Marcellius in the 4th Century AD” describing its construction and combat usage.. : ; Trebuchet: Mongol warriors using trebuchet to besiege a city Trebuchets were probably the most powerful catapult employed in the Middle Ages.
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Illustration of a Xuanfengwupao (旋風五砲) from the Wujing Zongyao Illustration of a Hinged Counterweight Trebuchet Prepped for Transit from the Wujing Zongyao, late Ming (Wanli Period) edition"Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity" by Liang Jieming Aju and Liu Zheng arrived in 1268 and blockaded the city with a ring of forts. Liu Zheng had advised the cities be starved from Sichuan by building forts there. The Mongols probed the defenses of Xiangyang and Fancheng. The Yuan-Mongols learned from their mistake, and this time brought along with them about a hundred trebuchets.
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In Britain a giant marrow (zucchini) weighing was displayed in the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show in 2012. In the US, pumpkin chucking is practiced competitively, with machines such as trebuchets and air cannons designed to throw intact pumpkins as far as possible. The Keene Pumpkin Fest is held annually in New Hampshire; in 2013 it held the world record for the most jack-o-lanterns lit in one place, 30,581 on October 19, 2013. Halloween is widely celebrated with jack-o-lanterns made of large orange pumpkins carved with ghoulish faces and illuminated from inside with candles.
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Perfect Weapon is a British TV series for the National Geographic Channel. It features the 2 hosts: ex-Royal Marine Monty Halls and archaeologist and medieval weapons expert Stuart Prior choosing a weapon for the current episode's category. Medieval weapons of the same type (such as rifles and cannons or mangonels and trebuchets) are compared and tested in rate of fire, how easy it is to make and to use, fatality (usually using a pig carcass), overall power, accuracy etc. The weapon which would win most of the rounds in the end is deemed the perfect weapon for the category.
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During the last two decades of the 14th century, a civil war raged in the Mamluk sultanate between Sultan Barquq, who had established the Burji dynasty in Cairo, on one side and on the other side Saif al-Din Yalbugha, governor of Aleppo, and Mintash, governor of Malatya. The city and the citadel were besieged several times during this period. During these sieges, both sides made use of siege towers, trebuchets, rockets and cannons. After Yalbugha switched sides and teamed up with Barquq, Mintash was killed in 1393, leaving Damascus and its city under the control of Barquq.
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The trebuchets had a maximum range of , and were vulnerable to parties of besiegers that were able to cross the trenches. So many bolaños were launched during the siege that in 1487 King Ferdinand II of Aragon sent an expedition to the ruins of Algeciras to retrieve them so they could be used again in the siege of Málaga. Reinforcements arrived at the Christian camp from the various councils of Castile, including the knights Juan Núñez III de Lara and Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena. The fresh troops replaced the soldiers who had been injured or were weakened by hunger.
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Our ships then > went forward to attack theirs, and their men and horses were all drowned, so > that they were utterly defeated. There were up to 340 ships in the Song fleet during the battle of Caishi in 1161. The Song fleet used trebuchets to bombard the Jin ships with incendiary bombs (pili huoqiu or huopao ; "thunderclap fire balls") that contained a mixture of gunpowder, lime, scraps of iron, and a poison that was likely arsenic. Reports that the bomb produced a loud sound suggests that the nitrate content of the gunpowder mixture was high enough to create an explosion.
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As the Jin account describes, when they attacked the city's Xuanhua Gate, their "fire bombs fell like rain, and their arrows were so numerous as to be uncountable." The Jin captured Kaifeng despite the appearance of the molten metal bomb and secured another 20,000 fire arrows for their arsenal. The Ming dynasty scholar Mao Yuanyi states in his Wubei Zhi, written in 1628: > The Song people used the turntable trebuchet, the single-pole trebuchet and > the squatting-tiger trebuchet. They were all called 'fire trebuchets' > because they were used to project fire-weapons like the (fire-)ball, > (fire-)falcon, and (fire-)lance.
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A hwacha from the Yungwon pilbi, 1813 Hwachas were mostly used in a defensive manner; however, some Western and East Asian historians have concluded that in some cases they were used offensively in sea-to-land attacks and in naval warfare as well, particularly in the Battle of Noryang Point, during the Imjin wars in 1598. Hwachas were usually carried to battle highly escorted. Once the army settled down in trenches or base camps, the operators would disassemble the siege weapon by placing the launching array on the top. Hwachas were similar to European trebuchets to transport, and required assembling before usage.
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Siege engines are fairly large constructions – from the size of a small house to a large building. From antiquity up to the development of gunpowder, they were made largely of wood, using rope or leather to help bind them, possibly with a few pieces of metal at key stress points. They could launch simple projectiles using natural materials to build up force by tension, torsion, or, in the case of trebuchets, human power or counterweights coupled with mechanical advantage. With the development of gunpowder and improved metallurgy, bombards and later heavy artillery became the primary siege engines.
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When properly defended, they had the choice whether to assault the castle directly or to starve the people out by blocking food deliveries, or to employ war machines specifically designed to destroy or circumvent castle defenses. Defending soldiers also used trebuchets and catapults as a defensive advantage. Other tactics included setting fires against castle walls in an effort to decompose the cement that held together the individual stones so they could be readily knocked over. Another indirect means was the practice of mining, whereby tunnels were dug under the walls to weaken the foundations and destroy them.
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On March 20th, 2018, the student government of Steller Secondary (referred to as OP Group) declared war on the silverfish within the school. Arming themselves with a multitude of weapons such as longswords, scissors, flamethrowers, and trebuchets, the students and staff of Steller Secondary tore down the walls and stormed the tunnels of the school and attempted to eliminate all silverfish within the school. The assault began at 2:45 pm on March 20th, 2018 and ended at 3:58 am the following day. The battle resulted in the casualties of 82% of the student and staff and 3% of the silverfish population.
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According to historian Wang Zhaochun, the account of this battle provided the "earliest truly detailed descriptions of the use of gunpowder weapons in warfare." Records show that the Jin utilized gunpowder arrows and trebuchets to hurl gunpowder bombs while the Song responded with gunpowder arrows, fire bombs, thunderclap bombs, and a new addition called the "molten metal bomb" (金汁炮). As the Jin account describes, when they attacked the city's Xuanhua Gate, their "fire bombs fell like rain, and their arrows were so numerous as to be uncountable." The Jin captured Kaifeng despite the appearance of the molten metal bomb and secured another 20,000 fire arrows for their arsenal.
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The defense of the fortress was headed by Gobron, a military commander on Gurgen's court. The size of the Muslim army, which included siege engines, was so colossal that the camps set up by its soldiers would cover the expanses of five villages: The Georgians, despite being vastly outnumbered, sporadically launched sorties, inflicting heavy casualties on the opposing force. On the other hand, the Muslims constantly bombarded the castle walls and fortifications with catapults and trebuchets, gradually bringing the castle walls down. At the twenty-eighth day of the siege, the walls came down and the fortress was overrun, putting the most of its defenders in captivity.
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Paddle-wheel warships equipped with trebuchets could launch incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, as recorded in Song's victory over the invading Jin forces at the Battle of Tangdao in the East China Sea, and the Battle of Caishi on the Yangtze River in 1161. The advances in civilization during the Song dynasty came to an abrupt end following the devastating Mongol conquest, during which the population sharply dwindled, with a marked contraction in economy. Despite viciously halting Mongol advance for more than three decades, the Southern Song capital Hangzhou fell in 1276, followed by the final annihilation of the Song standing navy at the Battle of Yamen in 1279.
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The most commonly used ammunition were stones, but "darts and sharp wooden poles" could be substituted if necessary. The most effective kind of ammunition though involved fire, such as "firebrands, and deadly Greek Fire". Trebuchets came in two different designs: Traction, which were powered by people, or Counterpoise, where the people were replaced with "a weight on the short end". The most famous historical account of trebuchet use dates back to the siege of Stirling Castle in 1304, when the army of Edward I constructed a giant trebuchet known as Warwolf, which then proceeded to "level a section of [castle] wall, successfully concluding the siege".
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The chronicle of Bloemhof records that William's supporters who were present at the siege included the archbishop of Cologne and the bishop-elect of Liège, John of Enghien, and Counts Otto II of Guelders and John I of Hainaut. Despite the presence of the counts and their retinues, the besieging force was not large enough to completely invest (surround) the city, leaving the defenders a means of supply and communication. In an effort to force the defenders into submission, the city was pounded by trebuchets. A large dam, high, was built to stop up the river Wurm, which flooded a third of the city.
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After the previous siege many of the city walls had been destroyed or severely weakened, so the Spaniards had to strengthen various sections. The rushed rebuilding left much to be desired compared to the original fabric of the thirteenth century Moorish defenses. Thus the main gate of the city, the Puerta del Fonsario, which had suffered most of the attacks by trebuchets during the siege of Alfonso XI, was rebuilt in part with a weak wall of mortar. The combination of decreased physical defenses and a small garrison for the town after movement of troops to the north caused the Muslim siege to be devastating for the city.
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The benefits of large guns over trebuchets – the most effective siege engine of the Middle Ages before the advent of gunpowder – were those of a greater range and power. In an effort to make them more effective, guns were made ever bigger, although this hampered their ability to reach remote castles. By the 1450s guns were the preferred siege weapon, and their effectiveness was demonstrated by Mehmed II at the Fall of Constantinople. The response towards more effective cannons was to build thicker walls and to prefer round towers, as the curving sides were more likely to deflect a shot than a flat surface.
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After Guiscard returned from Sicily (according to Amatus) he immediately laid siege to Trani, which was surrendered by the citizens in less than a month, on 2 February 1073.The date and length of the siege can be found in Lupus Protospatharius and the Anonymi Barensis Chronicon. Peter was forced into exile, first to Corato, which Guiscard besieged with ditches, siege towers, and the trebuchets and other engines used at Trani. When Peter and Herman tried to intercept the engines coming up from Trani they were met by Guiscard's brother-in-law, Guy, Duke of Sorrento, who imprisoned them, Herman in Rapolla, Peter in Trani.
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However, the relationship of the concentric castle to other forms of fortification is complex. An example of an early concentric castle is the Byzantine castle of Korykos in Turkey, built in the early 11th century AD. Historians (in particular Hugh Kennedy) have argued that the concentric defence arose as a response to advances in siege technology in the crusader states from the 12th to the 13th century. The outer wall protected the inner one from siege engines, while the inner wall and the projecting towers provided flanking fire from crossbows. In addition, the strong towers may have served as platforms for trebuchets for shooting back at the besiegers.
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Hug IV of Empúries and Pero Maça, Lord of Sangarrén, during the conquest of the island. The strategy used to conduct a siege on a walled city usually involved encircling the city and waiting for its defenders to suffer from thirst and starvation. Due to the weather conditions on the island during that time of year and the low morale and energy of his troops, the king elected to break down the walls and assault the towers in order to end the venture as soon as possible. Among the various machines that were usually used at the time were wooden siege towers, woven wattles, battering rams, lath crossbows and trebuchets.
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The Punkin Chuckin' Contest] was a Morton tradition that involved giant contraptions that hurled, catapulted, or shot 5-10 pound pumpkins in the air into an open field. The competition's last year was 2016. Competitors competed for the title of “Punkin' Chucker Supreme” with a one mile goal. The contest was modeled after the contest in Sussex County, Delaware (which plans to move to Rantoul, Illinois in November 2019) the first weekend after Halloween, but Morton holds the world record for farthest pumpkin thrown. The Punkin Chuckin’ Contest turned out various machines, from trebuchets to air cannons, with one machine holding a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
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The two fleets engaged in combat and the Song opened fire with fire-lances, fire-bombs, and crossbows. A large number of men died trying to cut through chains, pull up stakes, and hurl bombs, while Song marines fought hand to hand using large axes, and according to the Mongol record, "on their ships they were up to the ankles in blood." With the rise of dawn, the Song vessels made it to the city walls and the citizens "leapt up a hundred times in joy." In 1273 the Mongols enlisted the expertise of two Muslim engineers, one from Persia and one from Syria, who helped in the construction of counterweight trebuchets.
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Drawing the bowstring back with the winches twisted the already taut springs, storing the energy to fire the projectiles. The ballista was a highly accurate weapon (there are many accounts right from its early history of single soldiers being picked off by the operators), but some design aspects meant it could compromise its accuracy for range. The lightweight bolts could not gain the high momentum of the stones over the same distance as those thrown by the later onagers, trebuchets, or mangonels; these could be as heavy as 90–135 kg (200-300 pounds). The Romans continued the development of the ballista, and it became a highly prized and valued weapon in the army of the Roman Empire.
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Evpaty goes down from the hill, he shows them a seal that Batu Khan had given to him earlier, causing the Mongols to avoid killing him. Evpaty taunts Batu Khan that now the latter is the one who kneels, and dies from his wounds from being hit by stones thrown by trebuchets. Because he has his warriors to keep fighting the Mongols to the end, Batu Khan orders his soldiers to build a mound to bury Evpaty's body, one that became taller than the hill where he fought the Mongols. Many years later, that hill was used by another Russian prince, who leads a larger army to face an invasion of Teutonic Knights.
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Where this is the case, a siege castle refers to one built near the enemy castle within the range of trebuchets and catapults that could act as a strongpoint, a route barrier, a refuge in the event of counter-attacks, a barracks and a battery position for ballistic weapons. A counter-castle is often used to describe a castle that was built at a greater distance from enemy fortifications and castles. It did not support the immediate siege of a castle, but was constructed as a base in an area of rival power in order to prevent enemy attempts to expand their influence and control. Siege castles are only evident from the period of the Late Middle Ages onwards.
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The small block items, and particularly the torsion bar, rope drum, turn cross, and rope ends, are a key feature of Medieval Engineers, as they enable siege warfare. The player may combine these along with other small-block items to create battering rams, catapults, trebuchets, and siege towers, which use realistic physics based on mass, density, tension, and inertia. In a multi-player world, individual players may each claim territory, build their own castles and defenses, then create siege engines to attack other players' castles. Players can also use tools to construct large blocks, fell and process trees, and reshape the landscape, leveling for building purposes or digging to mine resources and form defensive trenches and mounds.
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In the Battle of Lake Poyang on 29 August 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang's fleet arrived armed with "fire bombs, fire guns, fire arrows, fire seeds [probably grenades], large and small fire lances, large and small 'commander' fire-tubes, large and small iron bombs, rockets." His fleet engaged Chen's under orders to "get close to the enemy's ships and first set off gunpowder weapons (發火器), then bows and crossbows, and finally attack their ships with short range weapons." However it was fire bombs hurled using ship mounted trebuchets that succeeded in "burning twenty or more enemy vessels and killing or drowning many enemy troops." Zhu eventually came out victorious by ramming and burning the enemy fleet with fire ships.
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If there are cases of extreme poverty, then the people of the city may turn to lives of crime, which has a number of negative effects on the city. The game features full 3D structures and people and allow the player to zoom in and out of the scene as well as rotate the camera around a full 360 degrees. While much of the game is focused on building and maintaining cities, there are some RTS elements when opposing cities and civilization do battle with the player's. Along with building fortified walls and towers around the cities to prevent enemy attacks, players may also build objects such as trebuchets to go on the offensive against opposing nations.
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James I ordered two trebuchets, a catapult and a Turkish mangonel to be mounted, with which they subsequently began to bomb the city. The actual site of the camp was strategically chosen based on its proximity to the canal that supplied water to the city, but also for its distance from the springs and Muslim mangonels. James I bore in mind what happened to his father in Muret and, sensing that the siege was to extend longer than anticipated, ordered the construction of a fence around the camp that would ensure the safety of his troops. The trebuchet, a siege engine from the medieval era, that could launch some two projectiles per hour at a target.
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The two fleets engaged in combat and the Song opened fire with fire-lances, fire-bombs, and crossbows. A large number of men died trying to cut through chains, pull up stakes, and hurl bombs, while Song marines fought hand to hand using large axes, and according to the Mongol record, "on their ships they were up to the ankles in blood." With the rise of dawn, the Song vessels made it to the city walls and the citizens "leapt up a hundred times in joy." In 1273 the Mongols enlisted the expertise of two Muslim engineers, one from Persia and one from Syria, who helped in the construction of counterweight trebuchets.
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The siege by Castilian forces failed to take over the city, as the Castilian army did not have the siege equipment necessary to mount a prolonged siege. The Crónica de Ávila, a contemporary source, does however recount the use of trebuchets at the battle. The defense of Jaén was led by 160 Christian knights who supported the Muslim defenders under the command of the Castilian magnate, Álvaro Pérez de Castro el Castellano, head of the House of Castro and grandson of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, the king of Castile and León. According to the Christian chronicles, 3,000 knights and 50,000 foot soldiers defended the city in addition to the 160 Christian knights under Castro.
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Replica battering ram at Château des Baux, France A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while others have wheels to enable advancing up to the enemy fortification. There are many distinct types, such as siege towers that allow foot soldiers to scale walls and attack the defenders, battering rams that damage walls or gates, and large ranged weapons (such as ballistae, catapults/trebuchets and other similar constructions) that attack from a distance by launching projectiles. Some complex siege engines were combinations of these types.
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The two fleets engaged in combat and the Song opened fire with fire-lances, fire-bombs, and crossbows. A large number of men died trying to cut through chains, pull up stakes, and hurl bombs, while Song marines fought hand to hand using large axes, and according to the Mongol record, "on their ships they were up to the ankles in blood." With the rise of dawn, the Song vessels made it to the city walls and the citizens "leapt up a hundred times in joy." In 1273 the Mongols enlisted the expertise of two Muslim engineers, one from Persia and one from Syria, who helped in the construction of counterweight trebuchets.
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At 3.55 kg (7.83 pounds) and is considerably lighter than older projectile devices such as the bulky trebuchets that were used to launch explosive bombs. Since the earliest textual reference to a "huo chong," or "fire tube," is dated to 1230 and the oldest surviving hand cannon is dated to 1288, the invention of the hand cannon likely occurred in the mid-13th century. The invention of the metal-barrel hand cannon in China did not diminish the popularity of the earlier bamboo-barrel fire lances. The fire lance was cheaper and more portable than the hand cannon and was still used in China until the 16th century when the musket replaced the fire lance.
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Louis was able to build a stockade for the whole Crusade camp with the wood from 24 captured Egyptian trebuchets. The flooding of the Nile had not been taken into account, however, and it soon grounded Louis and his army at Damietta for six months, where the knights sat back and enjoyed the spoils of war. Louis ignored the agreement made during the Fifth Crusade that Damietta should be given to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, now a rump state in Acre, but he did set up an archbishopric there (under the authority of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem) and used the city as a base to direct military operations against the Muslims of Syria.
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When siege weapons were used in Japan, they were most often trebuchets or catapults in the Chinese style, and they were used as anti-personnel weapons. There is no record that the goal of destroying walls ever entered into the strategy of a Japanese siege. In fact, it was often seen to be more honorable, and more tactically advantageous on the part of the defender for him to lead his forces into battle outside the castle. When battles were not resolved in this way, out in the open, sieges were almost always undertaken purely by denying supplies to the castle, an effort that could last years, but involved little more than surrounding the castle with a force of sufficient size until a surrender could be elicited.
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Black-sailed dromund ships of the Corsairs of Umbar at Harlond, the port of Minas Tirith, as depicted with a domed building in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy Gondor as it appeared in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has been compared to the Byzantine Empire. The production team noted this in DVD commentary, explaining their decision to include Byzantine domes into Minas Tirith's architecture and to have civilians wear Byzantine-styled clothing. However, the appearance and structure of the city was based upon the inhabited tidal island and abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, France. In the films, the towers of the city, designed by the artist Alan Lee, are equipped with trebuchets.
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News about the battlefield reached the Song Chinese court in early 1075. In the early spring of 1076, Lý Thường Kiệt and Nùng Tông Đản defeated the Song reinforcements to Yongzhou, and during a battle at Kunlun Pass, their forces beheaded the Governor-General of Guangnan West Circuit, Zhang Shoujie (d. 1076). Afterwards, the Vietnamese forces then marched towards the city of Yongzhou, where they were temporarily held up by a fierce resistance led by the Yongzhou governor Su Jian, who with three thousand soldiers prevented the city from falling for forty-two days. Vietnamese engineers deployed and launched trebuchets and fire arrows into the city, inflicted heavy casualties for Song defenders and caused fires and water shortages for its inhabitants.
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Although rarely used as a weapon today, trebuchets maintain the interest of professional and hobbyist engineers. One modern technological development, especially for the competitive pumpkin-hurling events, is the "floating arms" design. Instead of using the traditional axle fixed to a frame, these devices are mounted on wheels that roll on a track parallel to the ground, with a counterweight that falls directly downward upon release, allowing for greater efficiency by increasing the proportion of energy transferred to the projectile. A more radical design; Jonathan, Orion, and Emmerson Stapleton's "walking arm", described as "...a stick falling over with a huge counterweight on top of the stick..." debuted in 2016 and in 2018 won both the Grand Champion Best Design and Middleweight Open Division of the 10th annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Festival.
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While the Christian army camped outside the Medina, they received a visit from a wealthy and well-regarded Muslim named Ben Abed who appeared before the king and told him that he was in command of 800 Muslim villages in the mountains and wanted to offer all kinds of help and hostages, provided the king maintain peace with him. Along with advice on the practices of the besieged, this alliance represented powerful help to the Christians. As a first test of submission, Abed gave James I twenty horses laden with oats, and goats and chickens, while the king gave him one of his banners, so that his messengers could appear before the Christian hosts without being attacked. The response from the besieged was immediate and they answered with fourteen algarradas and two trebuchets.
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"Big 10 Inch" takes a world record shot in Moab, Utah, September 9, 2010 Pumpkin chucking, or for rhyming purposes punkin chunkin or pumpkin chunking, is the sport of hurling or 'chucking' a pumpkin solely by mechanical means for distance. The devices used include slingshots, catapults, centrifugals, trebuchets, and pneumatic cannons. Punkin chunkin competitions, formal and informal, exist throughout the United States in the autumn, and often occur when pumpkins are harvested. World Championship Punkin Chunkin, held annually in November in Delaware by the World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association (WCPCA), was the first and largest annual competition. The event ran annually from 1985 to 2013; a myriad of legal and logistical problems caused multiple events to be cancelled after that, and subsequent championships have been more sporadic. A European Championship has been held in Bikschote, Belgium each year since 2004.
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Guns were apparently employed in the field by the Serbians as early as 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo, being clearly mentioned in one later Ottoman chronicle (Mehmed Neşrî) and alluded to in a contemporary Serbian source which says that 'fiery explosions thundered, the earth roared greatly, and the air echoed and blew around like dark smoke'; we know too that King Tvrtko of Bosnia (1353–91) brought one gun, a gift of the Italians, with him to the battle. The Serbian contingent in the Ottoman army defeated at Ankara in 1402 also had artillery, but as at Kosovo it failed to affect the outcome, probably for the same reasons on both occasions - i.e. the guns were too small to be effective in order that they might be maneuverable on the battlefield. In siege work trebuchets and ballistae remained in service alongside gunpowder artillery for a long time.
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In King John's reign, Geoffrey Fitz Peter (c. 1162–1213), Earl of Essex and the Chief Justiciar of England (effectively the king's principal minister) held the Honour and Manor of Berkhamsted from 1199 to 1212. During his time in the castle he was responsible for the foundation of the new parish church of St Peter (the size of which reflects the growing prosperity of the town); two hospitals, St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist (one of which was a leper hospital), which survived until 1516; and for the layout of the town. In December 1216, the castle was besieged during the civil war, known as the First Barons' War, between King John and barons supported by Prince Louis (the future Louis VIII of France). Louis captured the castle on 20 December 1216 after twenty days using siege engines and counterweight trebuchets.
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The comic Johnny Carson once quipped, "The worst Christmas gift is fruitcake… There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other, year after year.". Many foreigners are skeptical of this fact, but indeed there is some truth to it: Manitou Springs, Colorado, holds an annual event in which unwanted fruitcakes are tossed in a contest to see who can throw the "gift" the farthest, with the locals building trebuchets and contraptions that are forbidden to have an electric motor. An elderly gentleman from Tecumseh, Michigan once made national news when he presented his countryman with the fact that he still had a fruitcake his great grandmother baked in 1878, and thus was over 130 years old. As of 2018, the same fruitcake is believed to be still at large in the care of one of his grandchildren, in a manner of speaking, proving Mr. Carson had a point.
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The engineers building the machines were recruited among captives, mostly from China and Persia, led by a Han general Guo Kan. When Mongols slaughtered the whole population from settlements that resisted or did not surrender, they often spared the engineers and other units, swiftly assimilating them into the Mongol armies. Engineers in Mongol service displayed a considerable degree of ingenuity and planning; during a siege of a fortified Chinese city, the defenders had taken care to remove all large rocks from the region to deny the Mongols an ammunition supply for their trebuchets, but the Mongol engineers resorted to cutting up logs which they soaked in water to make suitably heavy spheres. During the siege of the Assassins' fortress of Alamut the Mongols gathered large rocks from far and wide, piling them up in depots a day's journey from one another all the way to their siege lines so that a huge supply was available for the breaching batteries operating against the mighty citadel.
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Accumulating vast amounts of wealth and prestige, the men under the command of Norbanus find their loyalties shifting from the Senate of Rome to the man who made them rich beyond measure. Arriving in Rome with untold riches, Norbanus shocks the Senate and shifts the greedy desires of the Patricians south, rather than north. Keeping a wary eye on the luck-filled fortunes of his rival Titus Norbanus, Marcus and his lover Selene prepare the Egyptian military to counterattack Carthage with heavy investments in new inventions made at the Library of Alexandria, including light clipper ships, razor-backed bronze submarines, heavy water-borne rams, trebuchets, telescopes, and wide wings allowing for a degree of human flight. To counter Rome's assault on Italy, Carthage's top general, Mastanabal, takes a multi-national army of Celtiberians, Greeks, Libyans, Gauls, and various others from Spain to Northern Italy to surprise the hopefully green Roman forces there.
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The No Alternative was "made from a circular reed mat about five inches around and seven feet long that was pasted over with red paper and bound together with silk and hemp— stuffed inside it was gunpowder twisted in with bullets and all kinds of [subsidiary] gunpowder weapons." It was hung from a pole on the foremast, and when an enemy ship came into close range, the fuse was lit, and the weapon would supposedly fall onto the enemy ship, at which point things inside shot out "and burned everything to bits, with no hope of salvation." On 30 August, Zhu's fleet engaged Chen's under orders to "get close to the enemy's ships and first set off gunpowder weapons (發火器), then bows and crossbows, and finally attack their ships with short range weapons." Fire bombs were hurled using naval trebuchets and the Ming succeeded in "burning twenty or more enemy vessels and killing or drowning many enemy troops," but their own flagship also caught fire and hit a sandbar, forcing them to withdraw.
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The line between ranged and melee weapons is not entirely definite; for instance, spears, axes, knives and daggers can be used for both throwing and striking, depending on purpose and situation, and a ranged weapon can also be used as a melee weapon in close encounters, such as a rifle being used for melee with its buttstock and a fixed bayonet, a handgun used used as an improvised hammer and even an arrow being used for stabbing (as an improvised shiv) in desperate situations. Early ranged weapons often included specifically designed hand-thrown weapons such as javelins, slings and darts, as well as more complex elastic weapons such as slingshots and bows; and siege engines like stone throwers, catapults, ballistas and trebuchets. These ranged weapons were extremely effective in combat, especially when used en masse, as they gave the wielder opportunity to launch multiple rounds of attack before an enemy armed with melee weapons or shorter- ranged missile weapons could even get close enough to pose a threat. After the invention of gunpowder and the development of firearms, gun-type pneumatic ranged weapons became the dominant weapon of choice in armed conflicts, even in close combat.
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